Finished five short (3)
I believe the answer is:
oer
'finished five short' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adverbs. Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'finished five short' is the wordplay.
'finished' becomes 'over' (over can mean finished or ended).
'five' becomes 'V' (Roman numeral).
'short' suggests deleting specific letters (short can mean missing or absent).
'over' with 'v' taken away is 'OER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for oer that I've seen is " Above (poetic)".)